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<title>Reflection on Otherness in Marvel Comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe by KACY94</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27129128">Reflection on Otherness in Marvel Comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KACY94/pseuds/KACY94'>KACY94</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Analysis on female characters and queer pairing in general, Gen, I talked about Stucky/Stony/Spideypool tho, this is an essay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:29:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,248</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27129128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KACY94/pseuds/KACY94</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alright. This is an academic paper I did for my university course -- Otherness In Contemporary Culture at University of Toronto. It was graded with an A+. I thought it would be interesting to post it here. It basically focused on the feminism and queer baiting aspect. I have to say that English isn't my first language, but I think it won't affect reading. Once again I have to say: Even though it is an analysis, it is my personal opinion and may be biased. I know that Tony Stark being bisexual was... not exactly canon but we all assume it is.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Reflection on Otherness in Marvel Comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Marvel Cinematic Universe has been one of the most successful franchise of the world film history. It has made superhero related work become the mainstream. MCU is based on a fictional universe created by Marvel Comics which has been active since the 1940s. Even though superhero comics are completely fictional, they are representations of ideal worlds. People want to see superheroes doing things that they can’t in our universe. By analyzing some phenomenon happened in the comics and MCU, we can take a glance at the otherness in our society in a different angle. But first we need to know what otherness is. Otherness is created when the reference group attribute traits to people who are different, and as a result, you treat them as others. The traits are completely arbitrary, based on random choice rather than fact or reason.</p><p> </p><p>MCU is first established in 2008 when the movie Iron Man comes out. It talks about a genius, playboy, billionaire named Tony Stark suffers from traumatic abduction and abuse, and he implants himself with an arc reactor to prevent pieces of a bomb entering his heart. Later he built a set of armor supported by the reactor to protect the world. Throughout his solo movies, he then develops a romantic interest in Pepper Potts, his personal assistant, later became the CEO of his company, Stark Industries. Now, the problem with the Iron Man series is obvious. The female character in the move, Pepper, is in lack of character development of her own. All we know is that she is scared of losing Tony that she is not supporting him being a superhero. Pepper is a capable, intelligent, and beautiful woman, she graduated from MIT and is operating the biggest company in the world. Her ability, intelligence and personality that does not involve Tony Stark has been completely ignored in the film.</p><p> </p><p>After the success Iron Man movies received, Marvel then produced Thor(2011) and Captain America: The First Avenger(2011). In these two movies, the issue with female characters are not improved much. Jane Foster appears in the movie as Thor’s earth girlfriend, is a brilliant astrophysics student and later a Noble Prize winner in Physics, is being described so minimum that many people don’t even remember her existence. Peggy Carter, in the first Captain America movie is the first MCU female character that I think has memorable personality. She is strong, independent and she worked every inch of her success without a man to solve her problems. However, the screen time limited the presentation of her character. Looking at this movie as a whole, Peggy still can’t escape the fate of being part of Steve’s background. This problem became even a more severe issue in the second Captain America movie, titled The Winter Soldier. Despite its main story line, only focusing on the personal side of Steve Rogers, we can see that the writers and directors spend a bunch of screen time describing the relationship between him and his childhood friend Bucky Barnes, and how much they mean to each other. Their relationship keeps impacting how the MCU goes in later movies. For example, in the next movie, Steve is so scared of losing him that he gives up the identity of Captain America that has been the center of his whole life. However, looking at all the seemingly romantic interests of him, Peggy, Natasha, and Sharon Carter, their relationship is so lack of description and development comparing to what he and Bucky has. There are so many people shipping them together that # Give Captain America A Boyfriend on twitter went on no.1 trending in the US.</p><p> </p><p>Later in the movie, there’s no new issue that we have not seen, but there is one character I want to talk about separately. She is Natasha Romanoff, AKA the Black Widow. She is originally a Russian spy, later recruited by the US government. She is also the first female superhero ever to show up in the MCU. I would say that her overall character development is good. She has layers under the sexy appearances. She has her stubbornness, vulnerability, her past and her dreams. However, her romantic interests are all over the place. In the comics, she has many romantic interests, but mainly on two people – Hawkeye Clint Barton, and The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes. In the first Avengers movie, she seems to share a intimidate relationship with Clint Barton, but there is no confirmation. In the second avengers’ movie, she then develops an interest with the scientist Bruce Banner, who occasionally shows up as Hulk, and Clint just suddenly has a wife and kids for no apparent reasons. And in between, she also shows up in the Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In the movie, they wrote the story that make us believe there is a potential romantic relationship between her and Steve. And all those romantic interests that I mentioned above, none of them were really delivered. They exist to make the story hotter, and more interesting, and they are so very overly used as a tool to either attract audiences or moving the story forward. She is also being used as a symbol of sexiness for so many years. (posters) She is portrait as beautiful, sexy, badass, but not too aggressive or having a strong opinion of her own. This is a very sexist angle, but we can see why Marvel decided to play this card.</p><p> </p><p>The first female solo movie, Captain Marvel aired last year on the International Women’s Day. This movie although has a box office that grossed over 1 billion, has cause many controversies. Many people are not satisfied with how the main character, Carol Danvers is described in the movie. In contrast to some popular female superheroes we have before this movie (Natasha, Wanda, DC’s Wonder Woman). Carol Danvers is not generally considered gorgeous and sexy (although I disagree), she does not appear very feminine or vulnerable either. She is a soldier and pilot in the USAF. She is always appeared to be rather neutral. Instead of sexy, mysterious, or soft and kind, her confidence and courage is chosen to be a big part of the movie. Also, they did something that Marvel has never done for a solo movie, which is that Carol has no romantic interest in this film. She has her story completely to her own. As we discussed before, even if she does, this character will mostly likely become insignificant in the film. However, there is still description about her softer sides when she is with her friend back in USAF, Maria Rambeau. Some of her actions are also considered aggressive by some people. She is the kind of person that does not hesitate nor being lowkey. She is impulsive and not scared to show how powerful she is. In the end of the movie, she told her old mentor who was actually manipulating her that she has nothing to prove to him. This is not “cocky” or “ignorant”, this is what anybody who knows their worth and are confident with themselves will think.</p><p> </p><p>So what attitudes towards women that we can observe here? It is very obvious that the reference group, in this case is the majority of audiences, who are cis-gender male, they set up the norms for attractive females, which are sexy, beautiful, and loyal, they can be strong and confident, but not too much that they overpower the males. Female characters who fall out of this norm are attributed with negative traits. Natasha Romanoff has more romantic interests as the story progresses, in comparison of other female characters. The reference group then attribute the trait of “immoral” or “hussy” to women who date round that she is constantly being slut shamed on the internet and is being treated as other in this aspect. But why is she still generally well-liked comparing to Carol Danvers? Her differences comparing to other female character are pretty obvious. Her superhuman ability is by far the strongest in the MCU, and she is able to manipulate pure energy. Also, she is not on the low-profile, she wants everyone to know how powerful and strong she is. This difference is attributed with the trait of cocky, ignorant, and unlikable. She is not being accepted in the reference group because of it. And from these two characters, we can also tell that powerful women who are not “humble” are even othered more than serial daters. The society does not accept them for who they are or their rightful choices. The others can either obey the norm or choose not to. And we can see that Marvel intentionally not giving Natasha a romantic interest after The Avengers: Age of Ultron is a way of simulating the reference group. On the other hand, we do not know what they will do with the next Captain Marvel movie.</p><p> </p><p>Now since the LGBTQ+ problems are brought up, let’s look at the Iron Man comics first. Tony Stark’s basic character set up and the storyline is similar, but there’s one thing stands out. Although it is not been acknowledged widely, Tony Stark is officially confirmed in the comics as bisexual. However, it has no representations of his bisexuality in the film at all. And in the comics, his romantic interests are also limited to women. As one of the most popular characters in both comics and movies, there are countless people who will watch and read everything about him. This confirmation of his sexuality to me is more of a method to attract LGBTQ+ readers, but Marvel doesn’t want to give actual content of Tony Stark dating a man that may offend their majority readers, who are cis-gender males.</p><p> </p><p>And if you are familiar with the Marvel fandom, there are many people who are shipping Tony Stark with Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America. It was such a hot topic that it is addressed in the comics. In the Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2, which is published in 2009, a parallel universe numbered 3490 is discovered. In this universe, Tony Stark is born female and has the name of Natasha Stark, is married to Captain America. The massage delivered is not that they are great for each other, but that they can’t be together because they are of the same gender.</p><p> </p><p>Now there is a very important character I have to mention. He is the famous Deadpool, Wade Wilson. He is confirmed pansexual in both comics and the movie. His solo movies which are funded and produced by 20th Century Fox have some very obvious hints about his sexuality throughout the movies. I doubt that anybody would miss them, but his real romantic relationship is still with a woman. To be honest, Vanessa Carlysle is probably the best developed character as a superhero’s girlfriend, but the problem with that is the writers and producers aren’t really delivering queer contents. Their confirmation is nothing without actual contents. They are attracting LGBTQ+ audiences through this method, and without risking cause controversy in their original audiences. His sexuality is also used for queerbaiting in the comics. There is a popular series Deadpool/Spiderman, in this series, they have done so many things together. Even despite their overly close physical contact, they scarified their lives for each other, Wade went to hell and back for Spider-Man and leaving his wife behind, they raised a robotic kid together, they then grow old together. Marvel did all these and try to convince us that they’re friends.</p><p> </p><p>So what really is queerbaiting and how does it relate to otherness? Queerbaiting is a method to attract queer audiences with same-sex chemistry between two characters but not delivering a solid sexual relationship. It is such a common phenomenon in the entertainment industries. The earliest queerbaiting is probably in the books Sherlock Holmes and its TV series adaptation. Not only on screen, it is also common in the music industry that company uses queerbaiting to promote a singer’s career. So if queerbaiting can attract so many audiences, why don’t they just make it … real? First of all, even though same-gender marriage has been legalized for years in North America, the LGBTQ+ community is still under discrimination, and as a business move, the company cannot risk the controversy and the potential lose that it brings. Also, I would like to point out that a main trait of all male superheroes is masculinity, and the gays or bisexuals are often considered not as masculine by the society, and the reference group in this case will consider “not masculine” as “less”. Men who are not as masculine are less than the ones who are. It’s this otherness towards LGBTQ+ community stops the company themselves to make any risky moves, so that they became a part of the society who is doing the othering.</p><p> </p><p>So what we are gathering here is the otherness towards women and LGBTQ+ who fall out of the norm that the society, or the reference group, who are mainly heterosexual males, are still very serious. But we do see a change happening in the industry, as movies like Captain Marvel are coming out, and the first main character Valkyrie, who is introduced in Thor: Ragnork being a member of LGBTQ+. These changes are happening in the mainstream because of all the liberation movement that has been going on since the last century, and it will keep getting better as we keep pushing through for equal rights.</p>
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